* China is set to elevate its relations with Georgia to one of strategic partnership, President Xi Jinping said on Friday, declaring "unwavering" resolve to deepen ties with the former Soviet republic.
* Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi said on Thursday that GCC member states support "peaceful efforts" to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin told African leaders on Friday Moscow respected their peace proposal on Ukraine and was carefully studying it.
* Chinese and Russian officials stood shoulder to shoulder with Kim Jong Un as they reviewed the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s latest nuclear-capable missiles and new attack drones at a military parade in Pyongyang, the DPRK state media showed on Friday.
* The United States supports the United Nations Security Council's taking action to de-escalate the situation in Niger, a spokesperson for the U.S. UN mission said on Thursday after soldiers in the African country declared a coup.
* U.S. President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke about the possibility of boosting trade between the two countries as they met at the White House on Thursday.
* Andriy Pyshnyy, chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), said on Thursday that Ukraine will require at least 37 billion USD in external financing next year due to high expenditures on defense.
* Saudi Arabia has summoned Denmark's charge d'affaires and handed her an objection memo against the burning of the Koran in Copenhagen, the Gulf country's foreign ministry said early on Friday.
* Following the extraordinary elections on June 11, the Montenegrin parliament on Thursday held an inaugural session where it confirmed the mandates of its 81 MPs.
* Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Thursday submitted a list of 28 nominees to the Senate for approval as ministers in his cabinet. The country's constitution stipulates that the president should make ministerial nominations within 60 days after he was sworn in.
* UN humanitarians warned on Thursday that because fighting in Sudan disrupts public health operations, diseases that had been under control before the conflict erupted are now increasing.
* Typhoon Doksuri swept into China's southeastern Fujian province on Friday, unleashing heavy rain and violent gusts of wind that whipped power lines sparking fires, uprooted trees and forced factories and shopping malls to shut.
* The death toll from heavy rains, floods, and landslides triggered by typhoon Doksuri has climbed to 13, and 20 more are missing, the Philippines' national disaster agency said on Friday.
* The reopening and recovery of the economic sector has led the incidence of poverty in Malaysia to decrease to 6.2 percent in 2022, from 8.2 percent in 2021, official data showed Friday.
* The Philippines' foreign investments yielded net inflows of 1 million USD in June after four consecutive months of net outflows, the Philippine central bank said on Thursday.
* The USD significantly strengthened on Thursday, after the release of better-than-expected U.S. economic data. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.86 percent to 101.7678 in late trading.
* Turkey’s central bank revised its year-end inflation forecast to 58 percent, its governor said on Thursday. The bank's previous forecast in May was 22.3 percent.
* Egypt's foreign debt reached 165.3 billion USD by the end of March, registering a 4.8-percent increase compared to the same period in the previous year, according to the data released by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) on Thursday.
* East Africa's economic growth is projected to rise to 5.1 percent in 2023, up from the 4.4 percent recorded in 2022, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Thursday.
* The Australian state of Victoria will ban natural gas connections to new homes from next year as part of a plan to cut emissions and lower energy bills, the state climate action minister said on Friday.
* Ecuador is facing "a critical moment" due to criminal organizations that have recently unleashed more violence in the streets and prisons, President Guillermo Lasso said Thursday.
* Argentina and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are planning to announce a deal by the end of the week to unlock funds needed to repay $2.6 billion in loans, Bloomberg news reported on Thursday citing people familiar with the situation.
* The World Bank Group's private-sector lending arm is planning a return to palm oil financing after a 14-year suspension with a proposal for a syndicated loan of up to $350 million to develop palm oil plantations in Gabon under revised sustainability rules.
* The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has returned to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) with training for the Artemis program, a robotic and human moon exploration program led by NASA.
* The birth rate in Finland has hit an all-time low in the first half (H1) of 2023, with only 21,180 babies born during this period, the country's statistics office said in a press release on Thursday.
* All roads maintained by Sri Lanka's local councils will be mapped by 2025, a state minister said on Thursday evening.
* Saudi Arabia has launched a project to plant 50 million mangrove trees along its Red Sea coast by 2030, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.
* Norway and Finland face record outbreaks of bird flu this year which have killed thousands of seagulls and other species, put livestock at risk and restricted travel in some areas, officials said.
